In the Treatment of COPD, Greater Use in the Primary Care Setting Will Strengthen Spiriva's Position Among Sales Leaders

BURLINGTON, Mass., Dec. 6, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that Boehringer Ingelheim/Pfizer's Spiriva will most likely strengthen its position among the sales leaders for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) through greater use in the primary care setting. GlaxoSmithKline's Advair and Spiriva are the sales leaders in the COPD market, and hold similar percentages of patient share across the first three lines of therapy.

"While Advair and Spiriva hold similar percentages of patient share through the first three lines of therapy, results from surveyed PCPs indicate less of a preference for Spiriva, compared with surveyed pulmonologists," said Decision Resources Analyst Amanda Puffer, M.Sc. "PCPs prefer Boehringer Ingelheim's Combivent or Advair for use as a first-line maintenance therapy, which presents an opportunity for Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer to more aggressively target the primary care market to increase Spiriva's market share."

According to Treatment Algorithms in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, 44 percent of surveyed PCPs indicate their use of Spiriva will increase over the next two years. While this expected increase has diminished since Decision Resources' 2009 analysis when 59 percent of surveyed PCPs said they expect to increase their use of Spiriva over the next two years, a greater percentage of surveyed PCPs still expect to increase their use of Spiriva as a first-line maintenance therapy than expect to make other changes to their prescribing. Surveyed PCPs also expect to increase lung function screening and the use of spirometry when treating COPD.

"Greater use of these diagnostic tools in the primary care setting will improve the diagnosis of COPD and could lead to an increase in the number of drug-treated COPD patients. We expect the Advair and Spiriva brand teams will try to couple increased screening and spirometry among PCPs with prescriptions for their brands, as the first-line maintenance setting is the most lucrative segment of the COPD market," added Puffer.

About Treatment Algorithm Insight Series

Decision Resources combines in-depth primary research with the most extensive claims-based longitudinal patient-level data from IMS LifeLink's Health Plans Claims database to provide exceptional insight into physicians' prescribing trends and the factors that drive therapy product choice, from diagnosis through multiple courses of treatment, for a specific disease.

About Decision Resources

Decision Resources (www.decisionresources.com) is a world leader in market research publications, advisory services and consulting designed to help clients shape strategy, allocate resources and master their chosen markets. Decision Resources is a Decision Resources, Inc. company.

About Decision Resources, Inc.

Decision Resources, Inc. is a cohesive portfolio of companies that offers best-in-class, high-value information and insights on important sectors of the healthcare industry. Clients rely on this analysis and data to make informed decisions. Please visit Decision Resources, Inc. at www.DecisionResourcesInc.com.

All company, brand or product names contained in this document may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

SOURCE Decision Resources

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